Tips and Tricks

Optimal Photos

Information about file formats, resolutions, colour spaces, etc. is primarily useful for experienced image processors. The average "Carrefour Fotolumea mea" software user will only need to pay attention to the quality indicator on the photos and to activate the Automatic Image Optimisation feature. But it may also be interesting as background information.

File Formats for Photos

The "Carrefour Fotolumea mea" software supports the following file formats for photos/images:

The "Carrefour Fotolumea mea" software will not show image formats that are not supported.

Resolution for Photos in the Photo Placeholder

The relative resolution of the photos should be at best 300 ppi (pixels per inch), but always in relation to the display size of the photo on the printed page. If you change the size of the layout frame, the image detail or the zoom factor (the display size of the photo within the layout frame by clicking "Enlarge image" or "Reduce image"), the relative resolution will of course change too. A helpful tool is the quality indicator (red, yellow, green). As long as the quality indicator of the image stays green, there will not be any loss of quality when it comes to printing or developing. Even if the quality indicator is yellow, the resolution is still sufficient for a good printing/developing result. For photo canvases, the resolution can be slightly less because of the structured surface and the greater viewing distance.

Colour Space of the Photos

A colour space is a combination of all the colours in an image that can actually be shown. The colour spaces differ depending on the image processing program and the image and output devices used. Some Nikon cameras, for example, take photos in a special "Nikon sRGB" format, and Adobe Photoshop often uses its own "Adobe sRGB". Printers even work in a completely different colour space (CMYK), into which images first have to be converted by the printer driver. The standard and intersecting set of the colour spaces is the simple "sRGB" format (standard RGB). All digital cameras, scanners, monitors and printer drivers support this colour space. In production, the photos are always processed in "sRGB" colour format, and photos in other RGB formats are converted to "sRGB" format automatically and without any loss of quality. Most digital cameras take photos in sRGB format, so there should not be any problems in this respect.

Automatic Image Optimisation

The Automatic Image Optimisation optimises the image quality of your photos. This default setting analyses all the images in a project and correct them if required, in order to achieve ideal results when printed. It reduces any faulty exposure and colour tinge and also optimally adjusts contrast and colour saturation. Dark sections of images can be brightened to show significantly more detail. In addition, skin, vegetation and sky tones are adjusted. This happens automatically and the level of correction is specified by previous image analysis. The settings are optimised for a large average of all images, so that, as a rule, Automatic Image Optimisation leads to improved image quality. Image optimisation does not change the individual image impression.

We recommend you leave it switched on as default, if you have not already optimised the colour, contrast and/or brightness of your images yourself. As these image operations are automatically applied in the lab, there is no preview function in the ordering software. The examples shown below offer users an idea of the Automatic Image Optimisation effect in use.

Examples of the Effect of Automatic Image Optimisation

(left without and right with image optimisation)

"Automatic Image Optimisation" can be switched on and off for each photo individually (using the button in the toolbar). You can set a default setting that will apply to all images under Settings/Photos.

NB: If you are not currently working with a precisely calibrated monitor and your image processing does not support calibration, the printed result may be slightly different than expected.

If Ordering Does Not Work (Error Code 1002)

Please check your address details and email address for invalid characters, e.g. whether there is a comma in the email address.Error number 1002 can also be caused if the links to the images contain umlauts, and/or if the photobook has been saved with a location containing umlauts. If this error continues to prevent you placing an order, please contact customer services. You will find the email address in "Settings" in the "About..." section.

Downloading and Installing Additional Designs

For some products, there are additional backgrounds and designs that you can install later on. If the "More..." button is visible in the product selection area, you can click on this to go straight to the corresponding internet download page (internet access necessary). The contents of the download package will be displayed in a preview. Click on "Install" and the selected content will be downloaded and installed straight away.

Note:

Grid

The grid from the "Layout" toolbar is a tool to help you position objects precisely on a page layout. You can use the superimposed grid to position objects on top of each other or next to each other. It is possible to configure the settings so that the objects automatically snap to the grid intersection points (magnet icon in the toolbar). The grid will not affect the finished product: it is not printed or developed.

Third Grid

The third grid from the "Photos" toolbar superimposes two horizontal and two vertical reference lines onto the photo's placeholder, splitting it into nine squares of equal size. A photo is often more "exciting" if the motif is on the intersections of these reference lines rather than in the centre of the photo.

Example

The original photo is in the top left-hand corner. The third grid has been activated in the top right-hand corner, the photo has been enlarged somewhat inside the placeholder and the main subject centred on a suitable intersection. Below is the finished result. It looks better than the original in the top right-hand corner, don't you agree? The grid is not printed or exposed and cannot be seen in the finished photo product.

Dropdown Menu

A dropdown menu is a menu window that is expanded when you right-click on an object. It contains commands in text form that you can apply to this object. The content of the dropdown menu will change depending on the type of object. Dropdown menus often contain more commands than toolbars.

Your Own Photo as an Artistic Background

The "Set photo as background" command, among others, appears in the context menu of a photo in the selection area under "Photos & Videos." If you apply this command (right, left or both pages), this photo will be added to the page as a page background. Unlike the other background images, you can edit this background image by double-clicking on it in the CEWE PHOTOSHOW. Turn your photo into a background, e.g. with a line drawing effect. Try the various effects to see what you prefer or what could work well as a background to the other photos in the foreground. A sepia effect produces a classic look. Make the photo a bit brighter and reduce the contrast slightly. The result will work very well as a background image in a CEWE PHOTOBOOK or a calendar. The new photoshow (see the chapter "CEWE PHOTOSHOW") contains the photo effect "Background Image", which you can use to produce perfectly good results for background images.

Original		Sepia effect		Sepia and lighter, less contrast		Photoshow Background Image

Creating a CEWE PHOTOBOOK with no preset image placeholders (blank book)

Sometimes you might prefer not to use the CEWE PHOTOBOOK Assistant and to customise the CEWE PHOTOBOOK yourself from the beginning. To do so, it is good to start with a completely empty photobook, but there are page layouts on every page. For this reason, the selection area now contains a page layout called "0 photos per pages". Go to the first page (not the cover) and select this page layout. Right-click on the thumbnail to open up the dropdown menu, then click on the command "Layout is applied to all interior pages". Now you have a CEWE PHOTOBOOK with clean, content-free inner pages, just waiting to be filled.

Handling The Colour Picker

You will eventually come across the "Please select a colour" dialogue, whether you are changing the font colour or the background colour in a text field, inserting a coloured frame around a photo or if you want to change the colour of a clipart.

A preview of the currently selected or used colour is displayed in (1). The colours are applied by clicking the "OK" button and the dialogue closes.

There are multiple options to select your desired colour or to adjust it precisely:

• The primary colours (2)

  The easiest way of selecting a colour is by using the table with the primary colours (2). Simply click on one of the colour fields and the corresponding colour is selected.

• Selecting the colour from the screen (3)

  The mouse pointer turns into cross-hairs when you click this button. The pixel colour located directly beneath the centre of the cross-hair is applied as the colour in (1) by simply clicking it.This enables you to select a specific colour from a photo.

  You should make a few preparations to ensure that you can select a pixel from a photo:The photo must be visible in the program window and cannot be covered by the dialogue window. It might be necessary for you to move the program window or the dialogue window ahead of time.

• The Interactive Colour Palette (4)

  You can select the colour from the rainbow colour palette (4) interactively with a click of your mouse. The controller (5) is used to adjust the colour brightness.

• The HSV Colour Space (6)

  For the numerical input of hue, saturation and value. The hues can be set from 0 to 359 and correspond to the horizontal direction on the interactive colour palette. Here, 0 is on the right and 359 is on the left. The saturation corresponds to the vertical direction on the interactive colour palette. 0 is the lowest value and 255 is the top value. The value corresponds to the controller next to the interactive colour palette.

• The RGB Colour Space (7)

  Here, colours are sorted by colour (red, green, blue) and set numerically.

• HTML display (8)

  Web designers usually display colour values for websites as hexadecimal RGB values. This value can be entered or be read out here.

• The User-Defined Colours (9)

  If you would like to use a colour you created again and again, you can save it as a "User-Defined Colour."

  Either mark the desired colour field before you create the colour or create the colour first and drag it into the desired colour field from the preview area (1). You can also copy colours from the primary colours or from a different user-defined colour by pressing and holding the mouse button on an empty or no longer used colour field and drag it into the user-defined colour area.

Simulating a Coloured Border Around a Text Box

Unfortunately, a text box does not automatically have a coloured border, but you can add this easily using a photo.

Steps:

• Create your text box with the required desired size and position. Enter your text and format it as you wish.
• Add a new photo anywhere on the page.
• Assign this photo a coloured border in the desired width and colour.
• Then set the transparency (icon in the "Photo" section in the toolbar) to 100 percent.
  The photo is transparent, but the coloured border is visible.
• Then move the photo to just below the text box and drag it to the right size.
  If it needs to be precise, first select the text box, hold down the "Ctrl" key and use the icons "Adjust size of objects,", "Centre objects horizontally" and "Centre objects vertically" in the "Layout" section of the toolbar.

Creating a Monochrome Spine for the CEWE PHOTOBOOK

If you want to you use your own photos as a background on the front and back cover of a CEWE PHOTOBOOK, but you would prefer a monochrome spine, please follow the following steps:
1: Place the desired monochrome background for the spine across the whole double page. This completely colours the spine too.
2: Add your own photos on the left and right as backgrounds. If you add the photos first as backgrounds and then add the monochrome background, the background photos will be deleted and replaced by the new background, as there can only be one background. This also happens if at a later stage you want to add a different background in another colour to the spine. Then you will have to add your background photos to the book cover again.
3: Now you can continue to customise the cover of your CEWE PHOTOBOOK. The background of the text box on the spine should remain transparent so that the background colour of the spine shows through.
Note:
If you try to colour the spine of a CEWE PHOTOBOOK using only the background colour of the text box, there will be uncoloured areas above and below the text box (see right), which is not desirable. Cause: The text box is smaller than the spine and therefore does not colour it completely. Therefore it is better to use the method described above with a monochrome background.

Creating an Image Detail

You can create an image detail by combining the size of the layout frame, the zoom factor ("Reduce Image" / "Enlarge Image") of the added photo and the position of the photo within the placeholder.
Check the quality indicator in the toolbar (smiley).

Here is an example of the procedure:

Now the image fills the picture nicely. The placeholder does not necessarily need to be reduced. Here is an example of how the same photo can look if you zoom and pan:

Highlighting Objects

You can highlight an object by clicking on it once with the left mouse button and you can recognise a highlighted object because of the highlighted frame. Highlighted text is highlighted in colour or displayed inversely. So far so good. But it is possible to highlight several objects at the same time so you can edit them at the same time. This is called a (highlighting) selection.

First possibility: If the objects are "in a line", and you would like to highlight several objects next to each other, highlight the first required object and then, holding down the Shift key, highlight the last required object. All objects in between are also highlighted and added to the selection. This also works for text within a text box.

Second possibility: Objects that are close to each other on the screen can be highlighted with a selection frame. You simply drag the selection frame from one corner to a diagonal corner whilst holding down the left mouse button. All objects that are at least partially within the frame are highlighted and included in the selection.

Third possibility: The key combination "Ctrl" + "a" highlights all objects in the current editing window. This also works for text within a text box.

Fourth possibility: If you highlight/click on an additional object while holding down the "Ctrl" key, this will also be highlighted. This way you can highlight several objects at the same time that are dispersed across the workspace and add them to the selection. If you click on an object that is already highlighted while holding down the "Ctrl" key, it will be removed from the selection and "unhighlighted".

Combinations produce new highlighting options: For example, if you want to edit all objects except one, highlight them using "Ctrl" + "a" and remove the object that you do not want to edit from the selection by clicking on it whilst holding down the "Ctrl" key. You can highlight text areas in a text box by rolling over them with the mouse while holding down the left mouse button. You can highlight a whole single word by double-clicking on it.

Aligning Design Objects (Photos, Text, Clipart)

There are various tools to align photos and other design objects to each other. The most common method is probably the "Snap to grid" tool and/or using the smart reference lines. Both tools can be found and enabled / disabled in the toolbar in the "Layout" section.

Other useful functions for aligning and adjusting design objects can be found:

• In the toolbar in the "Layout" in the opened area as individual icons,
• and "Align objects" in the dropdown menu of the selected objects

The Alignment and Layout Commands in Detail:

Size, Position and Rotation

The commands to "size, position and rotation" are special because they allow the relevant values to be entered numerically. "Size, position and rotation" opens the dialogue "Position frame" that give you millimetre-precise control over position, rotation, size and zoom factor of the content. You can select several placeholders and then apply the same values to them. The dialogue contains three tabs, "Position objects", "Change rotation" and "Change object sizes". The "Keep ..." option is turned on by default.

"Position Objects"

With these alignment options, you can place photos and text boxes in the page layout to the nearest millimetre. With the option "Move Uniformly" the selected object is moved by the values below. If multiple objects are selected simultaneously, the objects' distance to one another does not change. The page width and page height of the total page layout area, or both (for "Move uniformly"), are given as reference points for verticals and horizontals respectively. Therefore, the page width of CEWE PHOTOBOOKS applies to the whole double page.

The possible alignments are:
Previous/initial situation (the left object selected first):
"Upper horizontal alignment"			"Left vertical alignment"
"Align the middle point to a horizontal line"			"Align the middle point to a vertical line"
"Lower horizontal alignment"			"Right vertical alignment"

Centre, Right, Left, Upper and Lower all refer to the respective placeholders. Horizontal and vertical relate to the page layout workspace. For the central point options, there is the additional option of centring the placeholder to the middle of the page.

Caution: Do not drag images or text beyond the visible area of the editing window. Once you lift a highlighted image, you cannot drag it back again. It is automatically removed from your order as soon as it is outside the workspace.

"Change Rotation"

The option "Set rotation" rotates the objects at the specified angle. The rotation refers to the work area of the editor. If you have selected multiple objects, they will all rotate at the same angle. The option "Rotate photos" rotates the objects relative to the specified angle, even if they were already rotated. If the photo has already been rotated, the new rotation is added to the existing rotation. You can also use this command to rotate text boxes.

"Change Object Sizes"

The size of the object is given in centimetres for height and width or the object is scaled by a percentage. The same applies to text boxes.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts make it easier to work with any software. Once you have become used to them, you can save yourself a lot of time.

Here are the shortcuts that work in the "Carrefour Fotolumea mea" software: